Callused Confidence

Weekend Wins And Facing Unknown

SPEAKER_00 0:01

A successful weekend, two events in the books, with a big holiday weekend ahead. Today we go from the familiar and comfortable as we open the door to the unknown. Six years of experience gives us a new perspective, but a deepened faith gives us the courage to go. So whether you're building a business, raising a family, chasing a dream, or just trying to figure out your next step in life, I hope today's conversation encourages you. Let me tell you something. Everybody struggles. The difference is some people choose to go through it, and some choose to grow through it. The choice is completely yours. Which one you choose will have a very profound effect on the way you live your life. It's you find strength in the struggle and it's high for you. Uncomfortable conversations with uncomfortable conversations with challenge you and they build you. You are right where you need to be. So I haven't been DJing in quite some time. Maybe that was just settling in in the back of my mind. Okay. As y'all know, this is the random tangent. Squirrel going off on the wrong side of the road here. Uh, I gave up the bulk of my bar playing days when it comes to uh DJing, right? I gave up a lot of those late nights, but I make exceptions for certain things. One of those things is I'm going to be on a booze cruise, I guess you would call it, leaving in the old port where it'll be to raise money for the Seeds of Hope charity, which, if you guys have been listening, some of my loyal ones, if you've listened over the past year through my wife's story and journey, that is the charity, that is the home that helped take care of her mother. So now that is something that we want to continue to support as best that we can. So in July I'll be doing a booze cruise, and I've received some very awesome wedding requests. Couple I've been able to fit onto uh my calendar for uh next year. Shoot, I think one's even the year after. We're gonna be in Portland, we're gonna be in Connecticut. I got all these cool things happening, but I guess because those conversations have been popping up in the inbox, they've been sliding into my DMs. Apparently, that's what give me the starts today's show. So I apologize. Let's try it again. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. What did it do? That's not it either, is it? You know what it is? Heat stroke. It's hot out, y'all. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. How do you do? That's probably not it either. I blacked out, I'm sweating, and uh clearly I'm confused. So, um, anyways. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. What it do, what it do. That's it. Yeah. What it do, what it do. Good law, almighty. Am I so excited to be back with you? Oh, it is true. It is damn true. I couldn't miss this intro. Why? Because I love you, boo.

unknown 4:10

Woo!

Weekly Fix And Brand Plugs

Ledgeway Farm Open House Recap

The $300 Lesson In Boundaries

Two Events With No Bus

New Mud Weekend In Lebanon

Failing Publicly Or Never Trying

Move Before Certainty Shows Up

Dad’s Advice And Faith-Fueled Grit

Memorial Day Reflection And Closing

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Man, the heat might have me delirious. And I might have to circle the wagons a few times, but eventually we will round up the ponies and bring them on home. Episode 306, we are back with your weekly fix. That means 306 consecutive weeks. We have been gathered here together. Dearly beloved. Find all things podcast related over to w share the struggle podcast.com. Find all things American apparel related, as in loud proud American apparel related, as in made in America, goodness, over to www.loudproud American.shop. Speaking of Loud Proud American, that's gonna be a common thread for today's show because we are coming off of a very successful, amazing weekend for the brand. It felt really good to get back out amongst the people. And it's always great to do these two events that we just did because it starts off at Ledgway Farm, and that is extended family for us. That is a family that started for us at our very first fair. I met Matt Perkins from Ledgeway Farm when I was set up at the Ospie Valley Fair for the very first time. So we're talking about five years ago. And uh he approached us and just started having conversation, and we just hit it off, and then um we've blossomed into acquaintances, to friends, to family, and um, it feels really good to go to their event every year and see them be celebrated by so many. And I want to explain this to you guys. This is an open house, and they just like it says, open their house to you. So they are a goat farm, they make goat milk soap, and it's tremendous. It's all that I use for soap. Make sure you check them out, check out Ledgeway Farm. So um they open everything up to you, right? So you can go there, you can walk around the farm, you can see the goats. There's always baby goats this time of year. You can see the process and how things work, you can ask questions, it's all free. There's plenty of cool things for kiddos to do. There's um different games like a kid-friendly axe-throwing game, there's bubble friggin' launchers and kickballs and petting zoos and audio duos, okay? I think there's phase painting, there's all kinds of stuff. And there's a bunch of vendors. There's uh there's food vendors and there's um, you know, tangible merchandise vendors like myself for Allow Proud American. And there's live entertainment, there's music the entire time. So it's just a feel-good, amazing event. They take a lot of um money out of their pocket, and they take a lot of time to put this on. It takes weeks to get ready for an event this big, and they advertise and they put it on the radio. So there's a major financial investment, there's a time commitment, but the most amazing thing is to see the community and their friends and their family come out and support them. I'm used to being at events with them, but not used to them, or I am now, I guess you would say, them running their own event. So it's very cool to sit back and see them in the middle of everything and being acknowledged and celebrated for it. So it's really cool as a friend to sit back and see your friends get flowers. Okay? It's really cool. It's even cooler when those friends invite you to their event. They don't charge you to be there, they actually tell you to spend the night in their beautiful, amazing, brand new, smoking, sweet, awesome camper. And you get to open up and make money to support your family at the same time. It's amazing. Uh, this year was our most successful year. And I'm just gonna say this it's not about the money when we go there. Like it's not. That's not what it's about. But I can tell you on the way home, you can count some serious blessings when you can pay some bills, and that's what it's all about. And at the heart of all of it, Matt and Sarah are a business and they're vendors, and they want to know and hear that the vendors are being successful. So it was a tremendous success for us. It felt amazing. It felt I got a great sense of relief just having um some actual purchases, some cash flow come in to start feeling like the season is coming. Um, that in itself is that big shot of hopium that we've been sitting around waiting for. Over the past month or so, you've heard me pivot from being on the road to doing custom orders, you know, working with businesses, and uh doing that's been great, but it's nice to get out on the road and sell your own product for your own business, for your own brand. And actually, this is kind of a um a Debbie Downer scenario for the very first time in six years. I had a small business burn me, and um I've been pretty bothered by that, and I try to just push it off and move on, but um, part of it is my own doing, and I'm gonna take accountability for that portion of it. And how this goes is I have a customer that was referred to me by a really good friend, and then this customer that was referred to me by a really good friend and also a good customer, they've made two very large purchases with me two years in a row. Okay, I've gone from soup to nuts, start to finish, with them creating their own logo for their brand and supplying all their apparel, and it's been very successful. They referred one of their friends to me. So this is a third generation referral, the way I would look at it. Okay, three limbs on the tree, if you're asking me. Coming from two really good customers. That kind of little sapling seedling. Understand what I'm saying? So they come to me and say, Hey, I'm sent to you by so-and-so. This is what I'm thinking, and I respond to them on a Saturday night as soon as I got the email and they were blown away. And I said, Give me this time frame, and this is what I have to do. And we started chatting, and they started creating chat GPT, AI-generated logos, which is great. Um, it's good um starting points and it's helpful, but there's a lot of work that goes in on a designer's end to take that logo and make that work as um a logo for an apparel or for a graphics on a vehicle or whatever it might be, right? There's a lot of enhancements that have to happen. So I finally get around to working on their stuff. I do exactly what they want me to do, and it takes hours to clean up this AI image to turn it into something usable. I send it back to them, they send back a bunch of um questions and changes, adding things that were not even included in the first layout. That's fine. I go ahead and do all of that, I send it back to them, they get back to me and say, now that I see what I asked for, I don't really like it. Can you take all of that out and let's go in this direction? And then I kind of pump the brakes a little bit and say, Hey, I just want you to know, like, I'm gonna do whatever you want me to do, but this is becoming very time consuming. Like, I there's a lot of work that goes into this for me to get this print ready and for me to get this as um business quality ready. So there's a lot of work on my end. So if we could just narrow this down as to which direction you want to go, that would be ideal, okay? Because there's a lot of manipulation and and and things that have to happen with this AI logo. To peel back the curtain a little bit, I don't charge people for the hours I put in because I consider myself still um developing my craft, okay? I will charge you for the project, not for the hours. This little project took multiple hours because we're talking about late nights, we're talking about weekends, we're talking about early mornings. They probably got emails from me between um midnight some nights and 5 30 in the morning other times, okay. For me to do this in my office, I have um three computer screens going. I have my main office computer with two screens and then my laptop going, and I'm even using my damn phone to YouTube things, and I have multiple softwares going, and I'm using multiple techniques to make this design work for them. I do all this, I send back exactly what they asked for. Three days go by, they get back to me and say, We're gonna hold off. Um, we're gonna try to get a few more clients, maybe we'll circle back to you at the end of the year. And uh, I said, Okay, that's great. I fully understand the struggles of a small business. I know what it's like, people are sitting on money. Um, I'm sure you can understand. I do have to charge you for the graphics that I've completed for you. The great news is I give you a volume-based discount. Based on um as much apparel as you order, you can have 50% off of your graphics. If you reach this amount, you can have 100% of your graphics bill come off of your apparel bill. I only do this at the time of design and purchase, but for you, based off the situation and you being a small business, just kind of getting off the ground, I will honor this for the rest of the calendar year. They get back to me and say it's unacceptable. I never expected a charge from you. You should have told me this up front. I go on to explain, you will refer to me. I made the assumption you understood how this worked. We've had 20 emails. I've made reference to you about how in detail this was going. Long or short of it. Um, I can't give it too much details on how far this went because I don't want to um single out who the business actually is. Um, I've thought about doing that, but I'm gonna just be the bigger, better business here. But for the very first time in my six years in business, I had a small business rear-end me. Okay, I've got multiple hours, wasted days into multiple revisions and changes for a business that then decides to stiff me out of just three hundred dollars. Like I 300 bucks, this is what I've done for you.$300. They argue and complain about it. I even offer to do it at 50%. I'll do it for$150. Let's wash our hands here. I didn't make you sign a contract because I don't do that. I apologize. Here we are. They still wouldn't do it. So I wasted days and um time for my family, nights, weekends, and mornings, for someone to not even value me at$150. So I hope that that business gets the business they deserve. But some of those things are the reasons why I have been hesitant on tripling down on doing custom work for other businesses. I really want to focus on my brand and getting back out on the road and being at Ledgeway Farm, and then the following day being at the Bonnie Eagle car show, the 46th annual car show, it was nice for me to sell my apparel to support my brand and to do what it is we came here to do. So that was pretty tremendous for me. It was a challenging weekend because I'll outline this for you. We don't have the bus back together yet. I don't have the funds for that. So I've been borrowing a trailer from my brother Chris Woodcock. He's uh sponsored me the rights to his trailer for some time until I can make the capital to get back on the road. And um with all that, um, it's a whole different process, right? We're taking the you know the family Yukon and uh the trailer, and then we're heading out and doing things that way. So on Friday, we rolled up to Matt and Sarah's house, we camped out and uh hung out with a bunch of great friends and family, and then Saturday morning we get everything set up and the event went until uh 3 o'clock. After that, we tear everything down, load everything back into the trailer, and then drive from Ledgeway to the Bonnie Eagle car show, which is about an hour and 20 minutes or so, and uh we get there to our vendor spot and uh back the trailer in and hook that, unhook that from the truck so we can claim our vendor spot, and then I don't have to try to get in there with the chaos the next day. So drop the trailer off, then head home, try to grab something for dinner on the way home, get home, do the chores, sit down for dinner at nine o'clock at night on Saturday night. Try to get some sleep. Um, the little one is irritable from the day, she's not looking to sleep, and at 4:30 in the morning, um, I'm wide awake, getting ready to uh get on the road. So at 4 30, I'm talking myself into moving. I get up, um, get things going, and then me and my mom hit the road by I want to say it was 5, 5.15 in the morning, something like that. So head on out to the to to Buxton to the car show, unload the trailer, set up the tent yet again, be open on time, have another very successful event, um, just just a um very blessed turnout and and event for us, and then the uh dreaded pack everything back up, put it in the trailer, drive an hour and a half home. So, multiple moving parts this weekend. I'm going from uh my house to basically Augusta, that's about an hour and a half one day, the next day, setting up, tearing down, going an hour and 20 minutes one place, 45 minutes or so back home, getting up at 4:30, getting ready, heading another, you know, 45 minutes an hour out, set up, do the event, tear down our home. So that's the jambalaya sandwich that we had, but it's a familiar jambalaya. It's one that we've done now for the past three years, and we're so grateful for it. And it's that boost of confidence, that boost of finances, and that boost of hopium that we always need. So I come out of that running on on high. Now, traditionally, I would come from that event and I would be getting ready for Memorial Weekend at Bentley Saloon, which is a place that is yet again a familiar place with familiar faces and a very familiar customer base. If you've been listening, you know that I have told everybody I am trying new things, I am dipping my toes into uncomfortable waters, and I am taking myself from some familiar places, and one of those places is Bentley Saloon. I think for me to grow, I'm forever grateful and gracious for what they've done for me, and I continue to do their custom apparel orders, but I need to get myself in front of an additional customer base. So we're going to an all-new event. We're going to Lebanon, Maine, to the 4x4 Proving Grounds. It's a mud truck ATV dirt racing weekend. I still got to figure out logistics, getting there Thursday, setting up. It's about 45 minutes to an hour away from my house. So we'll have the trailer out there set up, and then the event is Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Seems like gates open around 8 or 9 every morning, and then they run way, way late at night. So we're going to see how uh late I can go. There's no power, so I got to bring a generator. There's all these unknowns, there's these more additional challenges. This is an event that I've thought about doing for years, but I wanted to do it with the bus. So every night, if I had to, I could put all my merchandise back in the bus and I could sleep on the bus. So with the bus not being done, things are going to look a little bit different, and it's definitely going to be a challenge. The crazy thing here is when I was a young lad, when I was a young youth, my dad used to build these big mud rigs, and we used to go to events like this and um do all these off-road challenges and mud pit racing and such. And um my aunt was telling my mother that this track is one of the tracks that we used to go to all the time, but I was so young I can't remember if this is exactly the place or not. So it'll be interesting for me to get there and discover if this is the place. So this is an event tailor-made and perfect for me. This is an event that is perfect for our brand. This event should bring the customer base that we always look for. The scary thing about this event is number one, the unknown, right? Number two, I don't have my bus. Number three, it's muddy, it's dusty, it's dirty, I don't want to ruin merchandise or my display. Number four, I've seen videos and I've heard from multiple people that this place gets extremely wild and crazy when the sun goes down. That people are going nuts in all avenues of life. Okay? Things get wild when the sun goes down. And that's not nothing bad about this event, this track, this location. It's all of these types of events. I was talking to a fellow vendor this weekend that's going to another event, actually in Oxford at another racetrack that I considered going to. And they said, Hey man, during the day, when the sun's out, kid friendly and amazing. When the sun goes down, you have underage nonsense, you have drunks everywhere, you have burnouts, you have fights, you have crazy nights. And I said, Well, that's crazy, or that sounds fun. This is what I'm going to do. And they said, Man, I'll pray for you too, because that place gets wild. All these events. To. When you wake up and start drinking when the sun comes up and you're uh you're getting all jacked up and getting that adrenaline rush of four by fours in the mud, things get crazy. Okay. So I'm not one to ever be nervous about going into events when it comes to atmosphere. I've come from the dive bar dirt track upbringing. Okay? I've never been nervous walking into sketchy environments, whether it's an outlaw motorcycle biker gang establishment, or if it's a dive bar in the part of Tennessee that I shouldn't be in. If it's uh a fancy bar in um Wisconsin when I'm working for Harley Davidson that I don't belong in. It doesn't matter. All these different avenues, high-class restaurants where I can't afford the plate, versus the places where you should keep your head on a swivel. I'm a chameleon. I adapt to all of them. I've been spending two years in the Wild West if they tour in a bike week sleeping outside. I should be well equipped for anything. But all of the people telling me to be nervous about my apparel, be nervous about my display and my stuff when I'm not there has made me a little bit nervous. Okay? I'm just gonna be honest. I talked to a bunch of different vendors and customers and friends over the weekend saying, Hey, you're gonna do great there, but you gotta be careful. So there's that. There's that, right? But I really truly feel, and I've always felt, that if we continue to do the same things, we're gonna get the same results, and if we continue to dwell in our comfort spaces, then we're gonna get those same comfortable outcomes. You know what I'm saying? I need to do something different. I need to trust my instincts and I need to step out of my comfort zone. I am certainly nervous about this event because a lot of this is gonna be just me. I don't know how family friendly this is gonna be. Paisley's not that great with loud noises. I don't know if this is gonna be a total flop scenario for her. I don't know if I will have any help setting up. I don't know if I'll have any help tearing down or if I'll have any help running this event. I do not know. I do not know if I'll be driving home uh one hour each way there and back every single day, or if I'll be sleeping in the trailer, or if I'll be sleeping in my tent. It's all a wait and see, if you ask me. It all comes down to my feelings, my vibes, and um just what my instincts tell me. But I know that my instincts have always told me you don't grow in safe environments, and sometimes God calls you into places that test you, they test your character, your patience, and your confidence. For me, growth seems to come attached with uncertainty. It's always the case for me. Growth always comes attached with uncertainty when you when you just jump in, when you leap in, when you do more than dip your toes in, when you submerge yourself, that's when growth comes. Sometimes it comes in failure, okay? Let's be honest. Sometimes it comes with failure, but we have to ask ourselves what truly is harder? Failing publicly or never trying at all? I know this is a clicheist thing to say. I know this is something that you know we've we've heard multiple different ways throughout our life. But if you literally stop and think and spend time and thought asking yourself, what's more difficult? What is the harder thing to do? What is the the more challenging thing to overcome? Failing publicly. Like failing, and everybody knows it. And I think that no matter what we do in this life today, everybody knows it. If I walked into Walmart and uh had some sliced cheese come up me bitches, okay? If I just let one rip, all right, one that just, you know, changed sound barriers, increased ambient temperatures, you know, brought a higher level of humidity, you know what I'm saying? Something real bad in that situation. You know, if I turned around, there'd be somebody I know that probably even had their phone out, and they'd have video footage live on social media before I cashed out in aisle seven, okay? So whatever we do publicly, I feel like everything we do is done publicly. But failing, what's harder to get over? Failing publicly, doing something and having it go desperately wrong, or never trying at all, and living in the season of doubt, wondering what would have happened, what would have happened, would it have all worked out, or would we have failed? It's a battle, dude. I can actually I know the um prototypical let's raw, rah, kush can bow put this thing together, smack you on the ass, get you back out of there, halftime speech is let's get out there and and and fail. But we know that there's there's real feelings and real hurt that comes from failing, and then living with that failure. It's not easy to put those failures behind us. Like, let's acknowledge that. And for some people, it might be easier to just never try at all and um just live with the fact of making the assumption that it probably wasn't going to work out. But for those of us that want more, for those of us that see more in ourselves, for those of us that dream and believe they can achieve, it hurts more to not put yourself out there and just try. I think some people spend too much time saying to themselves, what if I fail? And they don't think about what if I succeed and it all works out. Now I started this show saying that whether you're building a business like myself, raising a family like myself, chasing a dream like myself, or just trying to figure out your next step in life, like myself, that today's conversation, my hope was it would encourage you. So I'm gonna continue this business spin, but I'm gonna peel this onion to cover all layers of what you might be going through or growing through right now. So whether it's the business, whether it's the family, whether it's faith, whether it's life, whether it's dream, whatever it is. I want this to relate on all levels. So, whatever situation it is, whatever stage in life you find yourself in, you can relate to failing publicly or never trying at all. Sometimes publicly, if we're talking about a relationship scenario, that publicly public failure might just be being shot down, being told no, being told I'm not interested. The fear of never asking, of never knowing if she was interested in you or he was interested in you, that fear I think far outweighs the failure that you might encounter by asking. Does that make sense? I'm talking about business stuff, but we can peel back the onion and relate on all levels of life. The the the fear that when you work up inside of saying, Man, we've been really good friends for the longest time, but I just feel a different way about this person, I just want them to know it. But I'm afraid of failing, and then knowing that my friend feels knows how I feel, and then I'm gonna have to live through this. But on the other side of that is knowing that if you don't ask, if you don't take that chance, then your someone will be with someone else. Does that make sense to you guys? So as we continue to try to find common ground for all areas of life, I want to ask you this. How often do we wait for guarantees before we take action? I spent the longest time in life waiting for guarantees or waiting for the moment to be right, waiting to be as prepared as possible. I actually had this revelation this week based on some conversations I had with people that I've never met before. Okay? New people in my life, new situation in my life, new opportunity in my life, having a conversation I didn't expect in my life. I had this revelation. Entrepreneurship, faith, and family all require movement before certainty. Let me spell that out one more time. Entrepreneurship, faith, and family all require movement before certainty. I'm gonna make an announcement or have, shall I say, a topic of discussion, a life event that will be discussed on a later episode that I'm gonna come back to this line. Entrepreneurship, faith, and family all require movement before certainty, and then I'll be able to spell out with you the conversations that I'm referencing, but I feel like it plays an impact on today's episode as well. And the reason why I say that is this when it comes to family, I never felt we were perfectly ready to have our first child. If I continue to wait for the times to be right, for all conditions to be right, for the certainty to be there, waiting for the guarantees before action, I would not be blessed by the greatest gift of my life, little Paisley Rain, who was nearly two years old. I would have missed out or delayed two of the greatest experience years of my life, because I was waiting for all things to be right, for them to be certain. I spent multiple years of me and my wife's relationship saying, I'm not ready for us to be parents, I'm not able to be a parent because I'm not mature enough. I still have F and off to do, I still have F you events to do. You know what I mean? I still want to travel and do crazy dumb things, I still want to waste money on nonsensible things, and I also knew I was working ridiculous amounts of hours and I didn't want to be one of those absentee dads that was only there on Sundays. You know what I'm saying? I did not want my wife to be a married, at-home single mom. Does that add up for you guys? Then when I left the job with the financial certainties that would have provided me the opportunities to raise a child without stress that I face now, I put myself in a financial situation that I've never been in before, with financial struggles greater than I've ever had before. And I was making the excuses to my wife, maybe if we had another year of the business, we would know. And if the business doesn't grow in a year, I'll find a job to give us the financial security to have the child. We had this discussion, and then in a moment's notice, we threw it all out the window, and I'm so grateful that we did. Businesses, your religion, your family, it all requires you to do. You need to move before the time is right. You need to move before you are certain. You need to take action before anything is guaranteed. When I started Loud Proud American, for those of you that haven't been listening the entire time, I left a 10-year career, one that I thought I would spend my entire life at with guaranteed income that would be generational safety for my family. And I started a business. I built a brand on my desire to have something American made. That same week, my wife also lost her job. The two of us were unemployed with no incoming paychecks, and I took my entire life savings and started my business. I've now been in business for six years. I've survived a pandemic, I've survived some turbulent times, and we are still here. And because I took that opportunity and I started that business, it did multiple things for me. It gave me the time to be home and spend time with my family. I was able to spend countless days with my father before, years before he would get he got sick and we lost him. None of those things would have happened for me if I didn't take the chance on the business. I wouldn't have the experiences with my family. I wouldn't have the friends that I now consider so close to me. I wouldn't have spent my weekend at Ledgeway Farm. I wouldn't have been able to do all these amazing things. There's a trickle-down effect of things that would not be here for me, experiences that I've missed for me, the road trip I just had from Texas to Maine, those weekends or weeks in Daytona at bike week, none of those things happen unless I take the leap before any certainty. Whatever you're thinking about doing, whatever you've been putting off doing, because you're waiting for guarantees, because you believe it requires some level of certainty. The biggest thing I can tell you today is that if you want those things in your mind, it's going to require you to move far, far before you are comfortable. You absolutely wholeheartedly need to stop waiting to feel ready. While having some of these conversations, me and my wife were actually really digging into this topic this week, and I said, This really kind of comes full circle with some advice that I received from my dad. And I remember talking to him on multiple occasions where he told me, You're never gonna be ready, just jump in and do it. And when you put yourself in that situation, when you put yourself in that position, you're gonna find a way to make it work. I spent time talking with my dad before building my house. Multiple conversations saying, I don't think I'm ready, I don't know if I have enough money saved, I don't know if I can afford it. And in all times he said, You're never gonna think you're ready. You just have to do it. You just have to do it and you will figure it out. And guess what? I did it and I figured it out, and I'm sure it's the same for many of you. The same year that I built my house, I married my wife. I remember saying to my dad, I don't know if I'm ready to do all of this, and the same advice rings true. You're ready, just do it. You're never gonna think the time is right. And I talked to him about children, and he told me the same damn thing. One of my biggest regrets in life is not giving my father a grandchild before he passed. On his deathbed talking to him, he told me, just do it, and you will be great. My dad always had the most amazing level of confidence in me that I can't even describe. When I left my my career, when the business was being sold, when the dealership was being sold, and I started this brand, I told my dad. Now let me just say this to you. I'm gonna I wanna I've shared this story before, but I feel compelled to share it again. Because I think it relates well to today's subject. One of the greatest, most fulfilling moments in my life was sitting down at dinner with my parents and my wife, looking across the dinner table and telling my father, Dad, guess what? Your son is an owner of a Harley Davidson dealership. Seeing the joy in his eyes, knowing that I did this, that I achieved this, and I explained to him all that this meant for us and for this family, and the security that was gonna come from it. And he was so proud of me and he was so happy. And he also said to me, Don't get too comfortable. Don't take any of it for granted. And I said, Dad, this is it's written, it's in stone, like we're not going anywhere. This this family's been in business for forever. This is this we're okay. This is the safety net, like we can we can do things now, we can breathe. And he said, Son, don't ever take those things for granted. One of the hardest conversations and most disappointing moments was when I had to sit back down at that table and tell my father, it's all going to be taken away from me. They're selling the dealership, I'm losing everything. To show the true character of my father, he looked me in the eyes with the same level of pride, support, and confidence that he had when I told him I was becoming an owner. And he said to me, Boy, you made it this far, you'll do it all over again. What do you want to do next? When I finally sat down and told him what I wanted to do when I thought it out and came up with Lounge Proud American, he was so supportive. I had no clue what I was doing. I never designed a damn t-shirt in my life. I had no clue. I'm recording today's episode in my garage, next to the dog kennel, sitting on a chair, when right to my right, there is a closet, a shoe closet, coat organizer closet. And I told my dad, I'm gonna start my business and I'm gonna start it right out of this corner right here. This is where I'm gonna put my computers, and I'm gonna start figuring things out. I'm gonna do design here and I'm gonna make it work. The next day my dad came to me and said, I've been thinking, boy. And uh, your office isn't gonna be big enough. We gotta put one in my basement. I have all this space over here, we can wall this off and build your office all the way through here. And I said, Dad, I'm not trying to take your space. And he said, Nope. That's not what this is about. Your office is not gonna be big enough over here, we've got to build it here. And then I mapped it off to half the size that I have now, and he said, Absolutely not, you're gonna need more than that, and he built it even bigger, and I should have listened to him and built it even bigger than that. But he always had more confidence in me than I had in me. Guys, I implore you to stop waiting to feel ready. We can't continue to wait for guarantees. We can't be afraid of failing publicly. We need to spend more time being afraid of not trying at all. The biggest keys I can give to helping you get out of these comfort zones, being willing to take these risks, is leaning into some faith. If you can lean into faith when things are unknown, you will find a confidence that allows you to take risks, that allows you to be uncomfortable. As my family continues this journey of strengthening our faith, it gives me the confidence to walk into the unknown, trusting the outcome. If you were sitting on the sidelines thinking about doing something, but being afraid to fail, if you're waiting for certainty, if you're if you're setting back and hoping for guarantees, lean. Into your faith when you are forced to face the unknown, lean into your faith and understand when you walk into unknown events, trusting the outcome is in God's hands, you will be surprised where you end up, and you will always come out better and stronger, hardened by fire and with a whole new callous layer of confidence. I like that. Callused confidence. I just blacked out thinking about callous confidence. Man, I love that. That just came from the depths of my soul on that one. Callused confidence. I love it because confidence isn't just given. Confidence isn't something we always just wake up with. I mean, some people will wake up confident, but true confidence comes from the fire. True confidence comes from failures. True confidence comes from being uncomfortable. True confidence comes from the unknown. It comes from uncertainty. It comes from purposeful positive movement, even when the times aren't right. When we fail and we succeed and we fail and we fail again and we fail again and we get up and we try again. We come out of each one of those events with another callus of confidence. And eventually you have these thick calluses of confidence that are able to withstand any fire, any trial, any flame. Woo! Man, wow, how did we get here today, boys and girls? How did we get here today? Man, I said at the start the show, I truly hope that today's conversation, somehow, some way, we take a business conversation and we mold it into a life conversation that blends itself into all areas of our life. I'm about to go into an event that everybody told me I should be at, but I should be nervous to be at. And I'm gonna go in there with so much unknown. So much unknown. I also mentioned to start this show that six years of business has prepared me for certain things. Six years in business has prepared me to walk into an event like this where I might seem unprepared. There's so many unknowns. I don't know where to set up, I don't know what time to set up, I don't know how long it's gonna take me to set up. Just start listing some of these things, right? I don't have power. I need to have battery backups for computers, I need to have a generator for lights. I don't know what the security is like at night. I don't know if I'm driving home every night. I don't know if I'm sleeping in a freaking trailer. I don't know if I'm sleeping on the grass or if I'm driving home to my own bed. I don't know any of this. I don't know if it's gonna be an event that my my little girl is gonna be okay being at during the daytime. I don't know if I'm gonna be MIA for four freaking days away from my family. I don't know. My six years of business experience is allowing me to get uncomfortable, to get into a situation that is far from familiar. It might be my type of people, but it's not a place that I've been. I'm replacing a place that I've been for five years that I've spent 20 years in. You understand? I'm going from the most comfort to the wide open spaces of the unknown. My six years of experience in business have shown me I can work through that. But my steadfast commitment to faith is allowing me the confidence to know that I can trust the outcome. It's all gonna be okay. And I hope that the message for today that makes it out to each and every one of you is that you need to move before you're certain. But trust that it's all gonna be okay. I hope everybody has a blessed, amazing Memorial Day. I hope we spend time and reflection thinking about all the freedoms that are bestowed upon us because of the ultimate sacrifice that comes from the day of Memorial Day. Give time and reflection, thank a veteran, be thankful, be grateful, be blessed for all it is that we have. If you're looking to have a little fun and you want to get a little dirty, you can see me at the proving grounds at Lebanon, Maine, and dip your toes in some mud. Alright? I look forward to seeing you. I appreciate you. I thank you. Some of the new listeners this week from San Bruno, California, Broadbrook, Connecticut, or Wilburnham, Massachusetts. I appreciate each and every one of you. All my day ones. Get your ones up. I acknowledge you. I thank each and every one of you for continuing to support my American dream. Now go wash your friggin' hands. You're filthy savage. That's it, and that's all, Biggie Smalls. If you're a Loud Proud American and you find yourself discounting more, find me on YouTube and Facebook and Allow Proud American on Facebook. If you're a fan of the Grand Cracking, you wanna find me on Instagram, the ticket on the tickety talking. You can find me on all of those underscore crack. Underscore America Big old thank you to the boys from the gun truckers for the background beats podcasts. If you are enjoying what you're hearing, back down the gun truckers, Facebook. Now go wash your fucking hands, you filthy savage.